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Actually, I’d be surprised if any of those were good candidates. Turbine blades in jet engines aren’t even machined now - they are grown out of inconel. Valves
by abakker 7y ago
Actually, I’d be surprised if any of those were good candidates. Turbine blades in jet engines aren’t even machined now - they are grown out of inconel. Valves are highly dependent on surface finish and frequently multi-material setups - e.g. o rings.
Not to make light of matching costs, but in the scheme of getting a part made, even of tool steel, the overall contribution of the materials is usually not super high. Machine time, tool bits, and design work are all MUCH more costly.
- c22 7y agoHuh, from the hangout and hack stuff all day at the maker space perspective this is flipped completely on its head. I have plenty of time to design things and operate machines, and even the cost of the machines (bits included) is shared to the point that it's almost free as an individual. It's waiting on those gosh darn materials budgets to appear that holds up all my projects.
- abakker 7y agoI should clarify, in production projects, materials may end up being a much greater overall part of the process, especially if the production is heavily automated. However, 3D printing of tool steels seems like it is aimed at lower volume parts where the automation will be lower, so paying a machinist to load/unload, finish, debur etc might be a relatively larger portion of the time. For us hobbyists, the CAD time is free, so it tends to cost less :)